Petter Solberg is next up for
Subaru and after struggling with shock absorber problems in SS1, 2 and 3, the Norwegian found some more speed on the repeat loop, overhauling both
BP Ford Abu Dhabi's
Mikko Hirvonen and his team-mate,
Chris Atkinson.
'Hollywood' now lies 18.1 seconds off Sordo and 5.1 seconds up on Hirvonen, who is fourth.
"This morning I wasn’t so comfortable but this afternoon was much better and I was really able to push," Petter stated. "The team have been working hard and things are going well.
"A podium would be very, very good but there’s so many things happening on this rally. But at the end of the day it’s good and I am happy with third. Tomorrow we will have to push very hard to keep the third place, but I am feeling good at the moment."
Hirvonen in contrast was disappointed with his pace and not 100 per cent sure why he wasn’t faster.
"It was a strange day. My feeling with the car was good and the handling was fine but when I tried to control my speed it didn't work," explained the current championship leader. "I've not had the pace and I don't know why because I've not been over-driving.
"I want to go and check the data from my car to try to find where I'm losing time. It's still possible to get to second, which is the minimum I want from this rally."
Atkinson completes the top five, another 10.1 seconds back - and only narrowly up on
Gigi Galli.
Galli opted to attack from the off and while it nearly went pear-shaped in SS2, when he hit a bank and picked up a puncture, which cost him around 70 seconds, he kept on it and even topped the times in SS4, hauling himself back up the leaderboard.
In total the Italian set top-three times in every test, bar SS2, and he could yet get onto the podium.
Further down the order,
Jari-Matti Latvala finished the day seventh and like Gigi he had problems in Crastazza when he conceded time with a puncture and was caught out by the narrow roads. Jari had led initially and set two quickest times during the day, but the 90 seconds he lost in SS2 have put pay to any realistic chance of him winning.
